Cristiano Ronaldo Says, 'I'm Sad' And The Soccer World Goes Into Hysteria

After refusing to celebrate his two goals in a 3-0 win over Granada on Sunday, he told the press, "I am sad and the club knows it, that's why I didn't celebrate the goals. The appropriate people inside the club know why I'm sad. I won't say anything more."

The most widely speculated reason is his contract. Everyone agrees that Ronaldo is one of the two best players in the world, but he only makes around $12 million per year — which is less than players like Samuel Eto'o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and roughly the same as his underpeforming teammate Kaka. His current deal lasts until 2015.

There's a bunch of other ridiculous sounding rumors (Ronaldo wanted more people from Madrid to go with him to a UEFA awards ceremony, etc.), and you can find those on Marca's website under the "Reasons For His Sadness" tag.

Ronaldo is coming off the best year of his career. He scored 64 goals in all competitions and led Madrid to the La Liga title.

We've seen big players, most notably Wayne Rooney in 2010, have public falling outs with their clubs, only to resolve the disputes a few weeks later. So we're still a long, long way away from Ronaldo making an earth-shattering move to another club in the January transfer window.

But the team is already five points back of Barcelona three games into the season, and this won't help.